Proper 13, Yr B (2024) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield

Proper 13, Yr B (2024)                                                             The Rev. Karen C. Barfield

Ephesians 4:1-16                                                                St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

John 6:24-35

In the name of the one, holy, and living God:

            in whom we live, and move, and have our being.  Amen.

Jesus fed the 5,000

and then disappeared!

Gone…

            vanished…

      but the crowd didn’t notice until the next day.

They had seen the disciples sail away in a boat

and knew Jesus wasn’t with them.

So, as soon as they realized that Jesus himself had fled,

they hopped into a boat and crossed the sea.

They went to search for him,

seeking more,

            eager to see more extraordinary signs.

When they found him on the other side of the sea,

they asked him when he had come there. 

Mind you there weren’t many options…

it hadn’t even been 24 hours,

        and yet their appetite for signs was not yet satisfied!

He responds to them,

“You are looking for me…because you ate your fill of the loaves.”

He knows they come to him looking for physical proof of the miraculous…

            like healing a man who has not walked for 38 years

                        or feeding 5,000 people with next to nothing.

However, these signs - these actions,

are signs of something much bigger

and deeper

and difficult to put into words….

It is the power of God that they have witnessed,

 and the power of God that they seek.

Yet because this power is something that the crowds only see through concrete actions,

 they keep talking in terms of what they or Jesus will do.

They want to see it

    and touch it

and feel it

      so that they know that this power is real!

They mistake the action for the power behind the action…

seeking the thrilling experience of the power

       rather than the quiet depth and abiding presence of God.

In all fairness, it makes sense, doesn’t it?

I mean, we are incarnational beings.

We have bodies,

and these bodies, most often, live through action.

But, to the crowd’s queries about more signs,

Jesus keeps responding over and over and over:

                        “Believe in God

        and believe in the one whom he has sent.”

But, Jesus, what sign will you do so that we will believe?!

            And…what must we do to perform the works of God?

Just believe.

Just believe that the God who created you

is a God who loves you

       and fills you with life.

You know this because I, Jesus, am showing you the love of God,

and the way to real life is a life lived in service to others

       through humility and justice and mercy and compassion.

Out of this knowledge and experience of God’s love for you,

            then a life of love will flow from you.

I wonder how often we humans seek to be amazed by miracles?

And then if we happen across one,

we want another…further signs…further proof.

We ask of God:

            “What signs are you going to give us?”

                        “What works are you performing?”

      “What must we do to perform the works of God?”

Believe.

            Trust in God.

To believe is to submit everything…

            our highest stake issues,

                        our darkest moments,

                 even our most intense pleasures

     to God’s saving work….God’s healing work.

To believe is to be open to God

and God’s power at work in the world.

Jesus calls us to put God…

to put love front and center in our lives…

                        before all the other distractions that constantly draw our attention,

    before seeking the miraculous to bring us comfort in the knowledge of God.

We hunger for life,

but as Jesus says, “do not work for the food that perishes.”

The life for which we hunger is none other than “the bread of life.”

The life for which we hunger is none other than Jesus, God incarnate.

The life for which we hunger is none other than union with God.

Paul begs the church at Ephesus to lead a life worthy of the calling to which they have been called…

            with humility and gentleness,

                        with patience,

                  bearing with each other in love,

      maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

None of that requires a great show of power

            or a frantic rushing here and there.

That is why Jesus disappeared after the 5,000 were fed…

he knew they were coming to take him away and make him king…

       to display his power.

But that was not who Jesus came to be. 

He came to serve…

to live humbly…

to love in the face of corrupt power…

                        to offer forgiveness and healing to a broken people.

Jesus said, “the poor you will have with you always”…

not because there is always destined to be poor people

but because these are folks who we are called to serve:

       the poor, the broken, the lost.

This is where God leads us…

through the witness of Jesus.

My friends, we are one body in Christ,

            upheld by the grace of God.

If we trust that in God we live and move and have our being,

            and that we are one Body in Christ,

     then we are able to go about God’s reconciling work in the world,

 with a deep and abiding trust that we are fed by the Spirit

and are equipped to do the work that God has given us to do.

Every Sunday we come to the banquet that God has set before us,

being nourished by the very Bread of Life.

We need not search frantically for signs and wonders,

            for God is at hand…

                        as near as our very breath.

So, let us breathe deeply of God’s life-giving Spirit,

            and the Bread of Life will feed us.

Amen.